Coming Attractions: Busy August Edition

Details on how to win a Kindle copy of Over My Dead Body by James Callahan, a copy of Death Row Complex by Kristen Elise, and a signed copy of Fat Cat Spreads Out by Janet Cantrell, all featured in past editions of Coming Attractions. There’s also a link at the end of this post where you can purchase any of these books.

“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” We have lots of entrepreneurs in this month’s mysteries to help keep your hands and mind busy with fun reads!

Jane Steward is organizing a Valentine’s week of activities at her book-themed resort, Storyton Hall. It all goes to hell when Rosamund York, one of the most celebrated authors in attendance, is killed. Rosamund had plenty of enemies: fellow novelists, a former lover, and dozens of angry fans. It’s up to Jane, with the help of her book club, the Cover Girls, to find the killer quickly before the murderer writes someone else off. Murder in the Paperback Parlor is number two in the Book Retreat Mystery series by Ellery Adams.

With opening day of her Material Girl shop approaching, Polyester Monroe is stocking up on fabrics, especially velvet. But it’s not quite the blend she expected, being 90% silk and 10% corpse. Crushed under bolts of fabric is the husband of the local teashop owner and close friend of Poly’s. With their friendship tearing at the seams, Poly must find the killer with a velvet touch. A craft project is included in Diane Vallere’s second Material Witness mystery, Crushed Velvet.

Angie Curtis and the Mainely Needlepointers know that nothing bad ever happens in picturesque Haven Harbor, Maine. The town is abuzz with excitement when a Hollywood actress decides to buy Aurora, the Victorian mansion (possibly haunted) that has been vacant for 25 years. Angie is asked to appraise the estate’s collection of needlepoint pictures. They seem to point toward the murder of the teenage girl who died there and the murderer. Threads of Evidence, second in the series by Lea Wait, will leave you in stitches.

Another interesting domicile crops up in a new series by Kathleen Bridge. Meg Barrett has opened an interior design business called Cottages by the Sea. She visits the swanky East Hampton home of her old college roommate, Jillian Spenser. But Jillian’s mother, a/k/a the Queen Mother of the Hamptons, has been murdered. Inventorying the estate for the insurance company, Meg discovers that the Spenser family has been hiding dangerous secrets. As she gets closer to the truth, the killer will do anything to paint her out of the picture. Better Homes and Corpses makes a great read on the patio!

Maggie Crozat returns to her family’s plantation-turned-bed-and-breakfast in Louisiana in time for the local food festival. When elderly honeymooners keel over, Maggie and her family suddenly become suspects in their murder. With the help of the town’s detective, Maggie investigates to clear her name while holding the family business together. The deeper she digs, decades-old secrets and stunning revelations surface. Plantation Shudders is Ellen Byron’s debut.

In Number Four of Karen Rose Smith’s Home Staging Mysteries, an ‘80s rock star asks Caprice DeLuca to stage his girlfriend’s antebellum-styled mansion to sell. But she soon learns the girlfriend is planning to sabotage the rock star’s comeback. Before Caprice can warn him, the girlfriend is murdered. With her Cocker Spaniel Lady by her side, she tracks down clues as danger stalks them both in Drape Expectations.

A pillar of the community in a small California town, Mary McGill has a place on every committee. But this year the Christmas pageant goes awry when a bloodstained corpse is found in the manger. Beside the body is a puppy. Two children reported a figure fleeing the scene. Mary thinks if she can find out what the puppy was doing there, maybe she can find the killer. She nothing about canines but she’d better learn—and fast—before she and the children become the next victims. Purebred Dead is the first in the Mary McGill Canine Mysteries by Kathleen Delaney.

We go from dogs to cats. When Tom Hart’s stepson falls for a tortoiseshell cat from the animal sanctuary, he and Jillian decide—what’s one more? But this kitty is a notorious kleptomaniac. The feline has nicked trinkets, shoelaces, and socks. But when she brings back an antique locket, Tom and Jillian’s sleuthing skills are needed to find the owner. Their search is sidetracked when a body is discovered. Can the sneaky kitty’s find lead to a killer? The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret is Number Seven in Leann Sweeney’s Cats in Trouble Mysteries.

Professor Molly Barda longs for working air conditioning and sits on a yoga ball because there is no budget for office furniture. She just wants to keep her head down and stay out of trouble until she gets tenure at Mahina State University. Then a prank at a donor breakfast pulls her into a stew of corruption, revenge, and murder. Higher education stoops low in Frankie Bow’sThe Musubi Murder.

A young artist awakens in an empty house on the San Diego coast, her memory gone. She finds Dr. Cory Cohen’s business card in a purse. While the psychologist/sleuth tries to help the artist revive her memory, Cory’s neighbor goes missing. Uncovering the neighbor’s real identity, Cory springs into action to confront a menace that haunts their neighborhood. Vanished is from the pen of real-life psychologist Sandra Ceren.

When a serial killer calling himself The Gaf starts an interstate killing spree, he jumps to the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Special Agent David Drake forms a taskforce to track down the psychopath. The killer is no novice: his father is a serial killer known as The Zodiac. The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in The Gaf Killer: Son of Zodiac by Jerry Otis.

Worse than a serial killer are rumors of marauding gangs of flesh-shredding giant Humboldt squid on a rampage in the Sea of Cortez. But nothing keeps sassy Texan Hetta Coffey and her snazzy yacht docked for long. When the opportunity for an intriguing and highly lucrative charter arises it’s “Damn the calamari! Full bank account ahead!” Just Different Devils is lucky Number Seven in Jinx Schwartz’s series.

To enter to win a Kindle copy of Over My Dead Body by James Callahan, a copy of Death Row Complex by Kristen Elise, and signed copy of Fat Cat Spreads Out by Janet Cantrell, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “August” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen after August 1, 2015. U.S. residents only.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section. Check back every month for Coming Attractions!

Click on this link to purchase any of these books:

Sunny Frazier worked with an undercover narcotics team in Fresno County for 17 years before turning her energies to writing the Christy Bristol Astrology Mysteries. Based in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the novels are inspired by real cases and 35 years of casting horoscopes.

All of these books sound wonderful, thank you so much for the chance to win! Cozies are my favourite genre of books! I can’t wait to read Murder In The Paperback Parlour, I really enjoyed the last Ellery Adams book I read! Always looking for more cozy authors 🙂 Thanks again!

What a nice give-a-way Sunny! Thank you for the intro to these reads.
By the way Sunny, I must have been living in a box because I did not know that you are a cozy mystery author! I need to play catch up and read your debut of the Christy Bristol Astrology mystery series.
Sandy in So. Calisxygrndma48@yahoo.com

Unfortunately, Sandy, the first two are out of print. Not to fear, my new publisher grabbed the rights and is excited to re-publish them again! “A Snitch In Time” came out in Feb. and is getting terrific reviews. I only write about the San Joaquin Valley and much of what I write comes from the 11 years I worked with the Fresno Co. Sheriff’s Dept. undercover narcotics team.

Thank you so much for the shout out, Sunny. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all that you and your colleagues at King’s River Life do to support cozy mysteries. I love our genre and think we have the best and most loyal readers in the world, and it’s wonderful to have the help of writers such as yourself in spreading the word about our new releases. Happy reading, everyone!

There are so many good books here. Always are. They all look good, but at some point I’ve got to take the time to read some of the books from Delaney’s Mary McGill Canine Mysteries. Purebred Dead I see all over the place. I’ve read the author’s bio and I’m so fascinated. She manages to have blog posts all over regularly. Don’t know how she pulls it off.A recent post from Linda M Thorne: Author Interview – Welcome Beth Fine

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